If you have your Bibles, turn
in them to Acts chapter 17. We'll be bringing a message from
there, a message I've titled, An Upside-Down World. You'll
see that that's taken from a phrase in verse 6 of chapter 17, where
certain Jewish enemies of the gospel, that is, they were called
there Jewish unbelievers, had referred to Paul and Silas as
these that have turned the world upside down. And I want to introduce
this as the second message in a five-part series that I intend
to bring, proclaiming one message, five sermons but one message,
the gospel message, the message that turns the world upside down. And as you may have caught there,
this being the second in the series, this obviously was an
afterthought following the message I brought to you previously from
Acts chapter 16 verses 25 through 34 there we looked at the conversion
of the Philippian jailer and in that message that I delivered
that was titled believing on the Lord Jesus Christ I related
how the gospel message of Paul that was delivered to that jailer
when he and Silas said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
I shall be saved how that was further distinguished and amplified
by our consideration of the descriptions given in chapter 17. You see
there we have more distinguishing comments made about that message
and we see more precisely what the gospel was that Paul preached
as he goes to these other cities of Macedonia beyond just Philippi. You may recall, as an example,
I expounded upon the fact that when he said, after Paul and
Silas told that jailer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved, they spake the word of the Lord to them.
And I directed you over to verse 3 of chapter 17, where we see
in much greater detail what that word of the Lord, the very gospel,
that's the power of God and the salvation, what that word was
all about. So the series actually began
last week in Acts 16, verse 25. And going forward, we're going
to look at the record of Paul's visits to these other cities
of Macedonia, the ones recorded in chapter 17 at least. That
is Thessalonica, Berea, and then Athens. So I will pause and do
a little backtracking today just to give you a brief bit of background. Keep in mind this is Paul's second
missionary journey. You may recall he and Barnabas
had parted ways after the first missionary journey. Barnabas
wanted to take John Mark with him, so Paul chose to take Silas
with him. And in the first part of chapter
16 at Lystra, there in Galatia, is where Paul met up with Timothy.
And so they had decided they would try to embark and go toward
the province of Asia, perhaps to that capital city of Ephesus.
And that would have been pretty much due west. And we see that
God intervened. The Holy Spirit there, we read,
forbade him from going there. So they said, okay, we'll just
head due north to Bithynia. I think that's how you pronounce
it. And they were heading that way, and they went about 100
miles north up to Troas. And there, again, God intervened,
and we read how a man of Macedonia appeared to him in a vision,
perhaps an angel of the Lord, who appealed to him to come to
Macedonia. And so there they are in Troas,
so now they're going to turn back west and head toward Macedonia
to these cities. Most of that is in what is now
called present-day Greece. So that brought us up to Paul
getting to Philippi because that was the chief city in that area
of Macedonia that they first entered into. He found no synagogue
there. Instead, outside the city on
the Sabbath to a place to pray, and there he met a lady named
Lydia. And many think that Lydia's conversion
is perhaps the first convert under Paul's ministry in all
of the continent of Europe. So it's rather historically significant,
this journey into Macedonia. From there, on the way to that
place to pray, he met a slave girl. And I don't want to go
into all that detail. I'll just encourage you, as time
permits, to read on your own the entire chapter, chapter 16.
But he cast a demon out of that slave girl and thereby deprived
the owners of the girl, the profits that they were getting, because
based upon being demon-possessed, she also was a soothsayer and
could foretell the future. Based on that, it led to them
trumping up some charges against Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas
then being stripped, beaten, and cast into prison. And I tell
you all that because I think there's a lot of irony there. When you consider that in our
religious world of today that so many will look at huge numbers
and much fanfare and basically calculate that God must really
be at work. Conversely, here's Paul and Silas. If you look back in verse 10,
in fact, of chapter 16, Luke, by the way, apparently had joined
them. Luke is the author of the book of Acts, and it says, well,
God's the author, but he used Luke's pen. And he says, after
he had seen the vision, that was the man of Macedonia, immediately
we, that means Luke also, endeavored to go into Macedonia. Assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
him. They went with full assurance.
See, every time they decided where they were going to go,
God intervened and said, no, this is where you want to go.
So here they are at Philippi, and what happens? They get stripped,
beaten, and thrown in jail. And you know, like the friends
of Job today, our tendency would be to say, well, You must not
be doing what God would have you to do. And yet, Paul and
Silas, we know, must have truly felt assuredly they were exactly
where God wanted them to be. For, you know, it said there
in prison they were singing praises, singing hymns of praise. The
other prisoners heard them, perhaps even the jailer before he fell
asleep. So, you see, God had someone
there in Philippi, a jailer and his family, that needed to hear
this message. You see, for the Lord Jesus Christ,
we know by the evidence of his faith and repentance, this jailer
and his family, they're rejoicing in that message. We know that
he indeed was one for whom Christ had actually purchased that gift
of spiritual life as well as life eternal. So I just thought
that was interesting background. I'll leave it to you to study
the rest of that on your own, but that's where we picked up
in the previous message with the Philippian jailer. I'll give
you a very quick synopsis, for those of you who weren't here,
of that last message that will lead us into the passage we're
going to consider more in-depth today. In verses 25 through 34
there, you'll recall there was an interest stirred by the earthquake
in that Philippian jailer. And he came to Paul and Silas,
and he asked this important question, "'Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?' And as you may recall, we discussed at length how embodied
in that question was a suggestion or a premise, an assumption or
presupposition, I should say, and that was that there is something
you can do to be saved. And then we went to great lengths
to show how in Paul and Silas and their answer when they said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that that answer was given not
as confirmation of that presupposition or premise, but rather in correction
to it. They were saying, oh no, there's
nothing you can do. You have to believe on, rely
upon, trust in the doing and dying of another. And I think
we adequately exhausted that in the prior message, so I'd
encourage you to listen to it. by looking at this one gospel
message that Paul preached. Paul, who said in 1 Corinthians
2, 2, he determined not to know anything, that is, anything among
you save, that means anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so I directed from there
your attention over to verse 3 of chapter 17 where we saw
that Paul, when he got to Thessalonica, He spoke of the death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't just speak of the
event of it, but as we saw there, he said he reasoned with them
out of the scriptures how Christ's must needs of necessity have
died and rose again. And we're going to look at that
in more detail today. So, why don't we just begin in
verse 1 and follow with me. We're going to be looking at
verses 1 through 9 in chapter 17. It says, Now when they had
passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,
where was the synagogue of the Jews. Now, as you may recall,
at the end of chapter 16, they had been released from prison.
They were departing and heading toward Thessalonica. And I thought
it was interesting, here God so clearly in chapter 16 was
directing exactly where they went, and apparently must have
directed them or they felt so led to just pass by Encythelas
and Apollonia. You see, God's going to put his
gospel in front of his people. And we're privileged to hear
it because today, he hasn't passed by Albany, Georgia. you're going
to hear the very gospel as right from the God's Word that Paul
delivered. And it is indeed the power of God unto salvation,
as the Scripture says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Well, it says in verse 2, and
Paul, as his manner was, he went unto them in three Sabbath days,
reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Paul as his manner
was. Paul as his manner was, he often
went to the synagogue first. He went and spoke with the Jews,
even though Paul is considered the missionary, as you know,
to the Gentiles. Paul, just as the scripture was
given, the gospel itself to the Jews first and then also to the
Greeks, seemed to be Paul's manner. But Paul's manner also was to
reason with them out of the scriptures. You know, when they told that
Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, answering
his question by correcting his assumption, they didn't just
make the statement, leave it there. He says in the next verse,
he spake the word of the Lord to them. He reasoned with them
out of the scripture. And as Paul's manner was, he
reasoned with them regarding a specific message out of the
Scriptures. And we see that in verse 3. I'm
just going to go on and read down through verse 9 and then
I'll come back and comment some more on these verses. He reasoned
with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that the
Christ, in the original you'll recall there was a definite article
there, The Christ must needs have suffered and risen again
from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.
And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas. And of the devout Greeks, the
devout Greeks would have been Gentiles who had converted to
the Jewish religion. But now hearing the gospel, the
gospel that set forth that Christ must needs have suffered and
risen again, some of these also, a great multitude, it says, and
of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews, which believe not,
moved within thee. And they took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set
all the city on an uproar. And they assaulted the house
of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people." You
see, Jason apparently had housed Paul and his company here. Paul,
Timothy, and Silas, at least it would appear. And it says,
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren
unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned
the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath
received. And these all do contrary to
the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one
Jesus. And they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And
when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they
let them go. And then we read on in verse
10 that the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night
unto Berea, who coming further, he again, what did he do, as
his manner was, he went into the synagogue of the Jews. Looking
back at verse 3, I'll remind you, as I dealt in the previous
message, that The notion that we all start out on when we get
serious about religion, you know, we want to go to heaven. What
do I have to do to get there? Just tell me what I got to do.
It's the same natural question that this Philippian jailer asked
Paul and Silas when he said, what must I do to be saved? But to cling to that notion that
salvation is, in fact, conditioned upon some requirement, something
done by you or in you or through you. rather than based solely
upon what was done for you by the substitute, I want to declare
again, essentially denies the fact that Christ's death was
truly essential or necessary. He must needs die and must needs
rise again. You see, because if you believed
as I once did, that Jesus Christ came and did something that made
salvation possible in his death. But the difference between whether
I would spend an eternity in heaven or hell, at that time
I believed, just like we all do, had to be something that
I could do about it, that I could appropriate to myself. And so
I thought the difference between those who would perish and those
who would spend an eternity in heaven was my believing. That's
what was different. You see, I didn't understand
Paul and Silas' answer. I thought they were confirming
that assumption that there was something to do and that that
something was to believe. But if you think about that,
and here's the way that you might consider it. If, in fact, My
believing is what made the difference. You see, whatever distinguishes
those who will be in heaven from those who will be in hell, that
is our Savior, whether we acknowledge it as such or not. That's what
we think makes the difference. And if, in fact, that makes the
difference, hypothetically, could not God have just instructed
us in his word to believe some other body of truth? Well, I
can tell you, as most would say, that I would have said, oh no,
that can't be, because I knew that there was something that
Jesus did that at least made all of this possible, see? But
if you think of it in this way, had God, and we can't go there,
I mean, that's purely hypothetical, but I think it will help you
think it through. Had God just described Jesus, who never became
incarnate, God the Son in heaven, and said, now if you'll believe,
on something associated with Him that was set forth, then
that will get you into heaven. It will help you acquire God's
blessing and find yourself accepted before Him. I can tell you that
my view of God in the past would not have had to change one iota. You see, there was nothing about
a God doing it that way that would be any different than God
as I imagined Him to be. So what that tells me is there
really was nothing that made his death and resurrection necessary. But in the gospel we discover,
oh, it is indeed necessary, for God's justice must be satisfied. And he requires a perfection,
a perfect righteousness that none of us can perform. And so we need a substitute to
do that, who has to be made like unto us. The scripture says he
is made under the law to redeem them which were under the law.
He had to be put under the jurisdiction of God that we, we humans, fall
under. And so he came as a substitute
for a people. And those people for whom he
substituted himself, they were sinners. And God being holy and
just, He can't commune with sin. That sin must be totally put
away. It has to be dealt with. And
so not only do I need God's justice satisfied in precept, that is
a perfection, perfect obedience, but the penalty also must be
extracted. And only the infinitely valuable
blood of a God-man can pay the travesty against the justice
of a God who is holy. and cannot commune with sin.
So I suggest to you that we need to find out what it means. And this morning, as we celebrate
the resurrection, it's not just the event of the resurrection.
We need to understand why he must need to have risen again. And hopefully, as we go, we'll
develop that further. I thought it was interesting,
too, in verse 3. How Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,
I have to remind myself often when I read passages like that,
that at that time they only had the Old Testament Scriptures.
But as Christ said, Moses wrote of me, in picture and type in
the ceremonial law, they had the gospel laid out there for
them as they sacrificed an unblemished lamb. before the altar, just
as Christ offered himself a sacrifice upon the altar of his deity.
That's what made that sacrifice something special other than
just some random slaughter of an animal. Well, think of it,
I was reminded as we heard in the 10 o'clock hour of that famous
passage from Isaiah 53. Can you imagine Paul talking
about how yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him? How he shall
see of the travail of his soul, this is in Isaiah now, speaking
prophetically of the very work that the Lord Jesus Christ would
perform. He'll see of the travail of his soul, and what shall be
satisfied? Oh, there won't need to be any
other offering, nothing added in addition to that work that
he would perform. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall do what? Bear their iniquities. You see, I need something I can't
produce. And so Christ, He came and for
a people that God gave Him, He took on sins that He didn't produce,
that God imputed or laid upon Him. And in turn, all those for
whom He bore their sins, God judicially took the very merit
of all that Christ accomplished, righteousness, that which satisfies
God, see, the requirement for God to be satisfied, and He judicially
imputed or laid it upon their account. Well, we read in verse
4 that some of these at Thessalonica hearing this believed. These
Jews here, these Jews in the synagogue as well as some of
the devout Greeks, those who were Gentiles that had converted,
to the Jewish religion believed, and it says they consorted with
Paul and Silas. That is, they privately conversed
with them, they worshipped with them, they associated with them,
and they identified with them. And then we see in verse 5 that
the Jews that believed not moved with envy. They were envious
of the reception, you see, that Paul had received by their others,
the folks they had been worshipping with. They were envious of the
message that Paul brought that drew these people away from them,
including apparently some of the prominent women, as it says
there. And so they moved with envy.
That word moved or that phrase moved with envy also has the
connotation of with zeal. And it reminds us of Paul in
that classic passage in Philippians 3 when he's talking about his
faith and repentance, his conversion. And he says, oh, if you think
it's still as that jailer started out, there's something here that
you can do in order to be saved. He says, touching the law, I
was blameless. Oh, I'll stack, I'll stack all
that, all that up against any of you. He goes on and he lifts
those things. And when he gets to zeal, it's always been interesting. He said concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. In other words, the true church.
He was speaking of the fact in his religion. It was in his religion
that he didn't want anything to do with what he discovered
to be the true gospel. And when God revealed it to him,
he said, what? Those things that I thought were
gain, I now count loss. And that's probably one of the
clearest pictures of godly repentance that you'll see in the scriptures.
Well, so these fellows were moved with envy. They were moving with
zeal too. And it shows up in their actions. What they do is
they gather, and I love this turn of the phrase here, lewd
fellows of the baser sort. You can almost hear an Englishman
with his accent saying lewd fellows of the baser sort, you know,
as if an educated and distinguished gentleman was trying to describe
really some rogues. The literal translation of that
is they were evil men and they were what they called market
loungers. That is, they were people who
laid around idle in the market, rogues, who had essentially no
purpose in life and so they could easily be gathered together here
for the purposes of these unbelieving Jews and that's what they did
they raised a mob up to create an uproar as we saw in verse
8 eventually with the accusations that they made before the rulers
they did create somewhat of an uproar for they troubled the
people and the rulers of the city we read there in verse 6 That's where their
accusations began. When they go to Jason's house
and Paul and Silas aren't there, they take Jason and they start
making the accusations unto the Roman magistrates, rulers of
the Roman government. And they began with this, saying,
these men are they that have turned the world upside down,
and they've come hither also. And we're going to come back
and look at that in just a little more detail. But as we go, I
want you to see exactly what the nature of the accusation
that was made. It was one of sedition, insurrection, or rebellion
against the Roman government. They were essentially saying
that these men were acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, to
his power, even so far as to suggest that these men, in their
worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, considered him as a competing
temporal king, one who would be in competition, say, to Caesar.
And yet, we know that Christ had already answered that as
much as he was being led to the cross, you know. Before Pilate,
he said in John 18, 36, My kingdom is not of this world. And I love
the next phrase. He said, If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews? This was the God-man speaking.
He was making it clear, Oh no, if my kingdom, if that were my
objective, believe me, That wouldn't take place. I wouldn't be delivered.
But now is my kingdom not from hence. Christ enlightened followers. They do indeed call him king,
but not an earthly king and not a rival with Caesar. Christ himself
had related a law of sorts, had he not, when he said, Render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. So we know that this
accusation they were making was blatantly false. And that's probably
why the rulers so readily allowed Jason and the others to go free.
Now, I want you to note the irony here. These unbelievers who were
opposing the gospel, who put this mob together, they were
making a charge that Paul and his company were acting in rebellion
to Caesar against the government. Now, a little historical background,
these were Jews, and the Jews hated Rome. And they hated Caesar. And they wanted his government
to be overthrown. And not only that, they expected
a Messiah who would do just that, who would be a temporal ruler
and overthrow the thrones of earthly kingdoms, such as Rome. So they were accusing these men
of worshiping a Christ that they knew wasn't that kind of ruler,
and that's why they didn't have anything to do with Him. And
yet they used that in contradiction to their own desires Because
you see, they were determined, something's got to happen here,
we've got to stop this message. They were moving with envy. And
so they set aside those contradictions. And they said, these men are
claiming this Jesus is in competition with Caesar, when that's exactly
what they wanted Jesus to have been. But what you see here is
the desired end justifying some unscrupulous means, I think.
You know, that adage that's often invoked in situations like this,
The enemy of my enemy becomes my friend. We see that in play
when the Roman government and the Jews came together in the
crucifixion of Christ. And we see that same dynamic
being attempted here by these unbelieving Jews. And as I said
in verse 8, we see that it did trouble the people and the rulers.
And you can see how it would. You see, for if there were any
legitimacy to the claim, there would have been perhaps upheaval
and rebellion. And for those who consorted,
identified with this message. You know, their fear probably
was that if there is any legitimacy whatsoever, I might by association
also be accused or come under suspicion or be charged by the
Roman government. So they did have their effect. They did trouble the people.
But in verse 9, we see that the magistrate apparently received
some satisfaction from Jason and the other brethren, the other
one, there apparently was one other there with him before them,
from their explanation of how their Christ, the doctrine of
Christ, pertained to a heavenly kingdom and not an earthly one.
And so it says, after they had taken security, they let them
go. That security may have been just those assurances. Some believe
that may have been in the form of bail. But regardless of what
it was, the release took place and they sent Paul and Silas
away then by night to Berea. I want to go back and spend a
little time back at verse 7 on that phrase, these that have
turned the world upside down. For I want you to see how this
message truly turns the world upside down. Make no mistake, I'm not trying
to twist what was intended by these men in verse 7, because
when they described Paul and Silas as these that have turned
the world upside down, it was to falsely accuse these preachers
of the gospel of provoking civil trouble, as we've already seen,
of mischief, of inverting all order or regularity about their
civil government and society. So what do these unbelieving
Jews, enemies of the gospel here, do? Well, in verse 5 we see they
set the city in an uproar. And so it's very interesting
that they who set the city in an uproar, they accuse these
men of coming here to turn the world upside down. But what I
want to focus on is the fact that though they didn't intend
it, there is a message and a truth in the fact that The gospel message
itself does indeed turn one's world upside down. You see, it
does so, first I want to suggest to you because it is disturbing
and it's disruptive. Christ said, I came to bring
a sword. As we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, Paul talked about
the offense of the gospel. And it's offensive, you see,
because it's so foreign to our natural inclination and notions. First, to these unbelieving Jews,
you think about it, it runs counter to all that they believe and
trust in, all that they were hoping for. As the Scripture
says, this is the condemnation, light has come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than the light. When one is confronted or is
stirred to some interest, as that Philippian jailer was, and
he comes and he says, what do I have to do to be saved? When
that takes place, there's going to be one of two reactions, typically.
You see, if God, the Holy Spirit, is doing a work, if he's given
them a new perspective, unlike the perspective we all start
out with, you see, like that Philippian jailer, when they're
corrected and they say, there's nothing. You need mercy, see? And yet, naturally, if God's
not doing the work at that time, what do we do? We'll say, don't
tell me there's nothing I can't do. You see, by nature, I'm going
to hang on to that last strand of controlling my own destiny.
So, although I may say I want mercy, I really don't want to
be in a position where that's really what I need. You see,
where mercy would suggest, true, unadulterated mercy, as the Scripture
sets it forth, is based upon a perfect satisfaction made.
When that publican cried out in that parable and said, God
be merciful to me, a sinner, that word was propitious. That
means show me favor that I do not merit based upon an appeasement
to your wrath, propitiation. And so, by nature, we say, I
don't want anything to do with that. We'll say, no, here's how
our first thoughts about that are. That means God would be
unfair. Why? I believe Jesus Christ died for
men, all men who ever lived. And you're saying He didn't.
Then how can that be fair? You see, our problem is we don't
understand that we all deserve. We all deserve condemnation.
And mercy is getting something we don't deserve. And let me tell you, it's disturbing.
This message is disturbing and disruptive, even to those for
whom Christ lived and died and has already, as a fruit and effect
of that, given them spiritual life and put them under the sound
of the message whereby He enlightens them to how He can justly justify
a sinner. It's even disruptive and disturbing
to us. As you may remember, a message
we heard not long ago called the Bittersweet Gospel. That
was a great message. There is a bittersweetness. It's
the greatest news that one could ever hear. But when we're confronted
with that, we're confronted with, you mean all that I've been about
has been a waste? Not just a waste. It's been evil
in God's eyes? Is that what you're telling me?
Well, yeah, I had the audacity to approach a holy God who required
the blood of his son to fully satisfy. He must need suffer
and die to satisfy all that was required. And me, a sinner, imagine
that I can go before God and say, yeah, but what will really
make the difference is if I'll do my little part. When he's
holy, he requires a perfect. Is my faith perfect? Is there
anything about me perfect? Now, I need something I can't
produce, you see. Well, that Philippian jailer,
you'll recall, his ground was shaken literally. There was an
earthquake. But not only was his physical ground shaken, but
when his assumption was corrected, you know that his ground or basis
of hope was shaken as well. For he discovered something that
he didn't know before. And I'm sure the thoughts of
friends and family who were of like mind had to come to mind
as they do. It always happens for us. And
so it's upsetting. It turns your world upside down.
But I want to focus more on the fact that the message itself
turns the world upside down for this reason. It proclaims something
that's not just different from what we would naturally assume.
It's not some amplification of truth. It's not some just greater
knowledge that we've grown into. But it is a way of salvation
that is diametrically opposed to the one which seems right
to us. And you see, that disturbing
180-degree reversal, as it pertains to our understanding of who God
is, how God saves sinners, that is why we know that genuine God-given
faith is always accompanied by that inseparable grace of repentance. And when I speak of repentance
here, I am speaking of repentance from idolatry. You see, for the
Scripture tells us whether we like it or not, that's what we
all are. We come into this world at enmity with God. Blind, dead
sinners. You see, We imagine, or I imagine,
and most do, that God was a God who would show mercy to me if
I do my part. And that was a complete denial
of even His justice. I thought that Christ paid for
sins on the cross, but I also knew the Scripture is clear that
most people perish. So I thought a bunch of those
people whom God had extracted the penalty of the infinitely
valuable death the blood of Jesus Christ in payment. He said, well,
I'm still sending some of them to hell anyway. What an unjust
monster. And I imagined that a holy God
could accept something that came from a sinner as that which would
make the ultimate difference. You see, that was an idol of
my imagination. And that repentance also is described
in Scripture. I'm speaking of initial repentance
now. We repent as we learn throughout our walk or otherwise there's
no growth in grace. But I'm speaking of the initial
repentance that accompanies spiritual life and God-given faith. We
repent from, the scripture says, from dead works, it calls it. That's speaking of our religious
good deeds and acts as men would see them. And why do we repent? Because we sinfully imagine that
these things possess some merit. Don't camouflage by much of religion. Here's how it's camouflaged.
God's done it all. All that he can do now, all you
have to do is reach out your hand. It's minimized. so that
we don't recognize. We think we're giving glory to
God and all the glory to Christ when the truth of the matter
is the crowning event that we think made the difference. And
whether I'd spend an eternity in heaven reconciled to a holy
God or everlasting separation from Him in hell was based upon
what me, a sinner, did. You see, the audacity. So we
repent from ever having imagined that something I did or could
do or was done in me could rival, and that's what it is, rival
that which nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ could
and did accomplish. Now that's important if we're
going to consider seriously the scripture's command to us all
that we are to make our calling and election sure. You see, for
we also hear the command of our Lord in Luke chapter 13 when
he says, Nay, but except ye repent, shall ye likewise perish. So
we better be able to identify, you see, that that's been the
case with us. That there has been that sort of 180-degree
reversal in what we all once imagined, first imagined, concerning
God and how he saves sinners. You know, there's a... in 20-20
hindsight, I look at some of the folly of the contradictions
I held. And one of them pertains to even
the new birth. But you know, in the Gospel,
Paul reasoned with them out of the Scripture. But dead men can't
reason. So I couldn't see it. But when
God gives life, it fits together like a puzzle. We see it as so
reasonable. And here's one of those unreasonable
things I held to. I knew that Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. In other words, I knew the Scripture
that says, you hath he quickened, given life to, who were dead. in trespasses and sin. And as
the Scripture says, a natural man cannot know the things that
be of God. If I'm dead, I can't see and I don't have eyes. He
talks about that in Scripture. He talks about giving us spiritual
eyes and spiritual ears and a spiritual heart. So we understand something
we wouldn't understand before. And yet, you know, I grew up
in religion and came to a point where I imagined if I would just
walk down that aisle and shake that preacher's hand and invite
Jesus into my life, that I would gain the assurance I need that
I would be accepted by God. And you see how foolish that
is. I thought that at the same time, there had to be a new birth,
and the new birth was being born. It was coming from deadness to
life. And in that life, I was going to perceive something,
not that I just slowly figured out over time, but I found out
to be totally contrary to the thoughts of the spiritually dead
man. Well, I'm going to read you just a few passages here.
And I quote these verses often, but I think they're so appropriate
as we consider the gospel that turns the world upside down.
God describes that. There are hundreds of scriptures
that do that, but I just picked a few of the ones you're more
familiar with. Proverbs 16.25, I've already
alluded to. There it says, There is a way
that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. In other words, the way, when
we get serious about religion, now the way that first seems
right to us, it's the broad road that leads to destruction as
Christ described it. And on the Sermon on the Mount,
what does he say? Many there be go in there at.
Few go in the straight gate, the narrow way that leads to
eternal life. In Luke 16, in verse 15, the latter part of
that verse, we read, For that which is highly esteemed among
men is an abomination unto God. Now here, you see how upside
down this world is? That which is highly esteemed.
Well, do men highly esteem a thief or a murderer? No, they highly
esteem kindness and being good to you, neighbor. And we should.
And yet, in that context, he says those things are an abomination
unto God. He hates those things. Why? You
see, because before spiritual life, in our natural estate that
we come into this world, being what? Dead in trespasses and
sin, we cannot do anything except from a legal or mercenary motive.
That is, we do those things thinking they gain a reward, mercenary. They somehow make the difference,
commend me to God, or we avoid them so we'll avoid God's punishment.
And you see, that places us in direct rivalry with what God
sent His Son to do. He said, if righteousness The
Scripture says, if righteousness, and that righteousness now, follow
me, is the requirement for acceptance before a holy God. He says, if
it comes by the law, that means by your meeting a requirement
or a condition, he said, what Christ died in vain. That's why
he hates it. It's an abomination to him to
place anything in the position of in addition to or in rivalry
with the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and what he alone
accomplished for his people. Well, consider our Lord's words
in Luke 10. He was proving that that a revelation,
a new birth was needed, that something beyond man's natural
wisdom would be required when he was speaking and praying to
his father. It said in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit. And
he said, I think the old father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hid these things from who? From the wise and prudent. Listen, if you understand and
rejoice in this message of the gospel wherein His righteousness
is revealed, it's not because you're smart. No, it's because
God's revealed something. He hid it from who? The wise
and the prudent. These are thinking men. Theologians. Put anybody in there who you
consider wise in the ways of this world in thinking. And He
has revealed it unto who? Babes. Newborns. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight." Well, you know, in elementary physics,
you probably have heard that they talk about the principle
of reference frames or frames of reference. The typical example
given is a train going down the track, and if you're sitting
on that train in the dining car and there happens to be a picture
there on the wall and you're looking at it, And let's say that train's
moving 50 miles an hour. As you stare at that picture,
you don't have to dart your head to keep up with it. Know it.
Your eyes just stay still. That picture's still on the wall.
From your frame of reference, that train is not moving, see?
And if you're going along the road beside the train and it's
going 50 miles an hour and you're going 48, well, if it's a long
train, it'll seem like it takes forever to pass you. Why? Because
from your frame of reference, it's only going 2 miles an hour.
And if you stop at the railroad crossing, we can go on and on
with this. But if you stop at a railroad cross and do like
we did as kids, we'd try to count the cars, you know. We obviously
didn't have a lot to do as kids growing up. But here the cars
were going by and you'd, you know, sometimes it'd be almost
like a blur. Why? Because that means moving 50
miles an hour. You see, and all of those are valid frames of
reference. But when it comes to the gospel,
the issue is not Will you accept Jesus Christ? Will you accept
God? The issue is, how can a holy
God accept you, a sinner? You see, that's his frame of
reference. And the only frame of reference
that matters is God's. And under the sound of the gospel,
this word that the psalmist said, by thy word hath he quickened
me? given me life. Under the sound of this, if God
is so pleased, that's what He does. He turns your world upside
down. And what you find out is that your frame of reference
was the one that was upside down. For His is upright. For God is
right and true. And it's imperative that we see
that. Well, in the interest of time,
I just want you to turn on to the last few verses of chapter
17. I'm going to bring the fifth message in this series We'll
deal with this much more extensively, but I wanted to touch on it this
morning. Paul had left Thessalonica, gone to Berea. From Berea, he
went to Athens. Here in Athens, he delivered
his famous sermon on Morris Hill. And these are the last words
of that sermon in verse 30, where he says, In the times of this
ignorance, God winked at. But now commandeth all men everywhere
to do what? To repent. That means that now,
under the sound of the gospel, which the Gentiles beforehand
had not had, he says, I call on men everywhere to repent.
Why? Verse 31, because he has appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness. Now there's God's frame of reference.
Righteousness. That's what's required. If you're
going to stand before a holy God and find yourself accepted
based upon anything done by you, in you, or through you, it's
got to meet this standard of righteousness. Now, whose righteousness? By that man whom He hath ordained,
whereof He hath given assurance unto all men. in that He hath
raised Him from the dead. You see, for righteousness demands
life, just as sin, when charged to our Savior, demanded His death.
And it will demand the eternal death of all whose sins are not
taken care of by Jesus Christ. And He's saying, look, here's
assurance, because I raised Him from the dead. You can know that's
the standard. So you must be as perfect as
Jesus Christ. I can't do that. Can you do that?
No, no, of course not we can't. But I can't pay for my sins either."
But God sent His Son to have the sins of a people charged
to Him. And in turn, the merit of what He accomplished charged
to them. So that I can stand before you
possessing the very righteousness of God in Christ. Not in here,
in Christ, but when He's judicially reckoned or accounted to my account. Well, sadly, if you look at verse
32, And I'll close. It says, when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, some mocked. And we'll see over in
verse 34, some believed. But some mocked when they heard
the resurrection of the dead. And you know, in times past,
when I held to some notion, I believed in the resurrection. I believed
in the event of the resurrection. And many today in churches across
our land are celebrating that event. And yet my views of what
took place there, you see, just as I mentioned earlier, if righteousness
comes by the law, if I was found reconciled and blessed by God
based on my act of faith, what I did, you see, he says Christ
died in vain. And that would make the resurrection
by which God says we have assurance that it got the job done, it
would make it a mockery as well. And I suggest to you that's exactly
what I did, but I pray better for you. I pray that you'll see
that all of your salvation is from that frame of reference
of grace and not works. that it's all based upon what
Jesus Christ did in His life and death and His obedience to
the cross, and then rejoice in seeing His resurrection. We can
really celebrate His resurrection when we see the necessity of
it, when we see the full assurance therein that satisfaction truly
was made. So as you're privileged to sit
under the gospel, this message that Paul delivered here, which
he said in Romans was and is the power of God unto salvation,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. I pray if God
hasn't already done so, that as was the case for these believers
in Macedonia, as is the case for all who are given God-given
faith and repentance, I pray God will turn your world upside
down.